Spell Prep Time for a Magus?

[Palanan]

I have a player who’s claiming that his magus only needs fifteen minutes to prepare his daily spells.

My understanding, based on the magus description, is that a magus prepares his spells by “spending 1 hour studying his spellbook.” Is there some variant rule that allows a magus to circumvent this?

[Kurald Galain]

No, he's wrong. Source here (http://www.d20pfsrd.com/classes/base-classes/magus/).

"A magus may know any number of spells. He must choose and prepare his spells ahead of time by getting 8 hours of sleep and spending 1 hour studying his spellbook. While studying, the magus decides which spells to prepare."

[Psyren]

If he's preparing a smaller number during the day though (in slots he has specifically left open for this purpose during the one hour window Kurald linked above), that can take as little as 15 minutes.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Psyren
If he's preparing a smaller number during the day though (in slots he has specifically left open for this purpose during the one hour window Kurald linked above), that can take as little as 15 minutes.

Can you explain this part a little more? Is this in the CRB, or Ultimate Magic?

The character is a first-level kensai magus, so he currently has only one spell slot, and that’s from his Int bonus. The party is about to hit second level, so he’ll get two spell slots, but I’m not quite clear on how the fifteen-minute rule works.

[Psyren]

Can you explain this part a little more? Is this in the CRB, or Ultimate Magic?

The character is a first-level kensai magus, so he currently has only one spell slot, and that’s from his Int bonus. The party is about to hit second level, so he’ll get two spell slots, but I’m not quite clear on how the fifteen-minute rule works.

CRB pg. 218. It says "wizards" but it applies to all prepared casters (and Magi inherit their preparation mechanics from Wizards anyhow.)

The full passage is as follows:


Spell Preparation Time

After resting, a wizard must study his spellbook to prepare any spells that day. If he wants to prepare all his spells, the process takes 1 hour. Preparing some smaller portion of his daily capacity takes a proportionally smaller amount of time, but always at least 15 minutes, the minimum time required to achieve the proper mental state.

Spell Selection and Preparation

Until he prepares spells from his spellbook, the only spells a wizard has available to cast are the ones that he already had prepared from the previous day and has not yet used. During the study period, he chooses which spells to prepare. If a wizard already has spells prepared (from the previous day) that he has not cast, she can abandon some or all of them to make room for new spells.

When preparing spells for the day, a wizard can leave some of these spell slots open. Later during that day, he can repeat the preparation process as often as he likes, time and circumstances permitting. During these extra sessions of preparation, the wizard can fill these unused spell slots. He cannot, however, abandon a previously prepared spell to replace it with another one or fill a slot that is empty because he has cast a spell in the meantime. That sort of preparation requires a mind fresh from rest. Like the first session of the day, this preparation takes at least 15 minutes, and it takes longer if the wizard prepares more than one-quarter of his spells.

Again, this doesn't apply unless he's intentionally preparing less than his regular allotment, and it only takes 15 minutes if he's preparing a quarter of his total spells or fewer. Any more than that, and you get to decide on a proportionate amount (up to the full hour Kurald mentioned.)

[Palanan]

Okay…so at second level, he can spend fifteen minutes preparing one spell in the morning, and then another fifteen minutes later in the day to fill the other slot?

That much I think I can follow, but rolling spell-slots throughout the day isn’t something I’ve seen in practice, so I don’t have a feel for how that works. Is there some handy reference to how many spells can be prepped throughout the day, and how long that would take each time?

[Milo v3]

Is there some handy reference to how many spells can be prepped throughout the day
The class table shows how many spells they can prepare each day at each level + bonus spells from high intelligence.


and how long that would take each time?
15 minutes for each quarter of your spells you prepare.

[Palanan]

Now I’m just confused.

Fifteen minutes for each quarter of the total spell allotment…but if there’s only two spells being prepared, shouldn’t it be thirty minutes each? :smallconfused:

[dhasenan]

You can prepare a fraction of your spells in that same fraction of an hour.

However, it takes a minimum of 15 minutes to prepare any spells.

You want one spell and only have two slots? That's thirty minutes.

You want one spell and you have a hundred slots? That's 15 minutes.

[torrasque666]

Now I’m just confused.

Fifteen minutes for each quarter of the total spell allotment…but if there’s only two spells being prepared, shouldn’t it be thirty minutes each? :smallconfused:

Say the Magus is level 1. They have four spells available, three cantrips and one 1st level spell. During their hour prep time after an eight hour rest, they can leave those slots available for filling at a later time. However, if they choose to prepare more than one spell (a quarter of their total allotment) it will take more than fifteen minutes, up to the entire hour. At level 4, they can prepare up to two spells in that fifteen minutes (four cantrips, three 1sts, one 2nd = eight spells total, quarter that is two). At level 9, its four spells in fifteen. At level 18 its eight spells in fifteen. (not that my level examples are not exhaustive, check Table 1-1:Magus in Ultimate Magic, page 10. Or on the PFSRD.)

[Palanan]

Okay, I still need help with this.

People are mentioning fifteen-minute increments, but I’m having a hard time connecting that to specific passages in the CRB. On p. 218, it says that “preparing some smaller portion of his daily capacity takes a proportionally smaller amount of time, but always at least 15 minutes….”

So it seems like the spell prep time should be a simple fraction of the number of spells prepared over the total number of spell slots, multiplied by sixty minutes, with fifteen as the minimum. That’s what makes sense to me from reading that passage, but I’ve never used this approach before and I’m not sure if that’s what was meant.

[Psyren]

Okay, I still need help with this.

People are mentioning fifteen-minute increments, but I’m having a hard time connecting that to specific passages in the CRB. On p. 218, it says that “preparing some smaller portion of his daily capacity takes a proportionally smaller amount of time, but always at least 15 minutes….”

So it seems like the spell prep time should be a simple fraction of the number of spells prepared over the total number of spell slots, multiplied by sixty minutes, with fifteen as the minimum. That’s what makes sense to me from reading that passage, but I’ve never used this approach before and I’m not sure if that’s what was meant.

The easy way to do this is to make it take an hour in the morning no matter how many slots he's leaving open. Generally there's no time crunch in the morning so you don't have to waste time doing any calculations. From there, if he preps during the day, the only time you need to do any calculations there is if he/she is prepping more than a quarter of their spells "on the go" which usually shouldn't happen - it's too risky for them to leave that many slots open. So if it's just a handful of spells, 15 minutes bam.

Basically, the idea is that you can calculate it if the player is being precise, and they give you a formula to do so, but in practice prep will usually take either 15 minutes or an hour with in-between circumstances being exceedingly rare.

[Milo v3]

So it seems like the spell prep time should be a simple fraction of the number of spells prepared over the total number of spell slots, multiplied by sixty minutes, with fifteen as the minimum. That’s what makes sense to me from reading that passage, but I’ve never used this approach before and I’m not sure if that’s what was meant.
That's correct. And also basically identical to 15 minutes per quarter. The 15/quarter is just much easier since you don't do math to see how many spells you're doing, you just check "about" how many.

[Palanan]

Originally Posted by Psyren
The easy way to do this is to make it take an hour in the morning no matter how many slots he's leaving open.

Okay, thanks. Much easier.

Also, the player has now told me that he was confusing Pathfinder rules with 5E rules. He seems to do this a lot. :smallannoyed:

[Slipperychicken]

Okay, thanks. Much easier.

Also, the player has now told me that he was confusing Pathfinder rules with 5E rules. He seems to do this a lot. :smallannoyed:

I don't blame him. Between experience with 3.5, PF, 5e, and innumerable d20 games, it can be very challenging to keep them all straight.

Although I strongly recommend considering some 5e rules as houserules. WotC learned a lot, did extensive playtesting, and patched up some of the bigger flaws made in 3.5 and PF.